About

 

I am researching for a PhD at Cardiff University on the subject of community gardens. I’m taking an ethnographic approach to consider them as processes of place making. My work is informed by ideas from anthropology and cultural geography. The project is funded by the university’s Presidential Scholarships which are supporting four of us to investigate the theme of food and sustainable city regions.

 Previously I worked in environmental policy and campaigns for NGOs in Wales, covering issues of land-use, biodiversity, sustainability and climate change. I currently sit on Coed Cadw/The Woodland Trust’s Welsh advisory committee.

Why Routes&roots?

This blog was named with reference to my interest in place and gardens, so the homonymic name seemed appropriate. Current ideas about place variously invoke movement and pathways, hence routes, but also roots in the sense of home and belonging. And gardens would be nothing without the latter, and not much without the former.

 Plus, you may have noticed that word play is hard to avoid when writing about gardening. So the name is both homage and gentle dig at the preponderance of punnery in this field.